G
Guest
Guest
Re: sorry trevor, and lbs, and targa 52
Ahem. This brings me up to at least three jolly nice people on the BB who I have initially and unwarrantedly verbally (textually?) lashed. Apologies again.
The baot show. Ah yes. General consensus from those that I met was that there is nothing much new. But it's always a good laugh to meet people innit. I met Colin, and he didn't tell me a thing about his Soltron - praps he found it later.
I had a piece of cardboard from Sunseeker (thisis not a ticket, just a piece of cardboard for jumping queues) and let son#1 aged 12 hand it in, at which they freaked a bit, but then nicely showed me round a predator 75, the 68 and the manhatten erm praps seventy something? Sunseeker salespeople people do seem oily, and not much of salespeople realy - they just wait until you buy, it seems. I was treated okay with a monster cigar and big leather coat. Inside, the sunseekers are a bit boringly the same high-gloss cherry wood, IMHO, hence cream carpet going grubby and cream too-poofy leather sofas. The P68 feels as lot more special than the Princess v65, tho.
Then to Fairline, to look at the new Targa 52. Not a hit with me, not with many of the salespeople, it seems. It's wider, and main criteria seems to have been 1) get a fast jet boat in the garage and 2) lower the superstructure so that the short people like er um well mebbe the chairman of Fairline can see over the windscreen and 3) gerally frig about a bit so that it's New, not old.
Unfortunately, its a miss. I hope they haven't spent a fortune on development. It steps a little forward in terms of engine access (no need for big central cockpit hatch, as access is down the rear single sunpad. But backwards in lots of others from the T48. The main beneficiary of the exxtra length and beam has been the mid cabins, invariably occupied by the kids and non-paying guests. Meanwhile the owners cabin gets (as far as I can see) a smaller bed (same length x breadth, but rounder) and cabin hardly at all bigger as it can be rammed further up the (wider) bows. The helm is awful - the sit/stand chairs have gone, for example.
The companionway stairs look as though I made them out of plywood - they should be teak. The daft saloon has a smaller main sofa that the t48 (against the starboard side) and a tiny fixed central sofa which will be ideal for nobody except 2 very smallest-arsed junior guests who don't mind being a foot from the table. The saloon isn't even all on one level- there's a small step to catch the lightly-slaughtered fridge-raider.
The cockpit looks good tho, and will have lower noise level (i bet) than the t48. From the rear, though, the boat is quite ugly - the t48 used to stop gawpers in their tracks and they'd say how lovely (even just being able to see the *stern* mind), whereas the t52 has higgedly-piggledly curves and "trendy" but pointless Audi/Ford Focus corners all over. It's also lost the symmetry.
I like the cockpit area, however, although again not as good imho as the t48. Getting to the rear of the boat not as secure as the t48, and the radar arch a mess - not high enough so it s/steel radar arch on top of the plastic one! Neat eh? Cockpit lighting still not sorted: the rear ward arch in the t48 had three lights, this has two, and two a tiny bit further forward on the sides, but it'll be dark in there. Overall, I'm glad that I didn't wait for it, and the forthcoming t60 will also be rubbish unless they get me round, ahem - and no I'm may not be getting above myself - the saloon table has an inlaid chessboard! Now where did they get that idea? ...However they've still managed to eff it up - it's too small for the standard pieces.
Ahem. This brings me up to at least three jolly nice people on the BB who I have initially and unwarrantedly verbally (textually?) lashed. Apologies again.
The baot show. Ah yes. General consensus from those that I met was that there is nothing much new. But it's always a good laugh to meet people innit. I met Colin, and he didn't tell me a thing about his Soltron - praps he found it later.
I had a piece of cardboard from Sunseeker (thisis not a ticket, just a piece of cardboard for jumping queues) and let son#1 aged 12 hand it in, at which they freaked a bit, but then nicely showed me round a predator 75, the 68 and the manhatten erm praps seventy something? Sunseeker salespeople people do seem oily, and not much of salespeople realy - they just wait until you buy, it seems. I was treated okay with a monster cigar and big leather coat. Inside, the sunseekers are a bit boringly the same high-gloss cherry wood, IMHO, hence cream carpet going grubby and cream too-poofy leather sofas. The P68 feels as lot more special than the Princess v65, tho.
Then to Fairline, to look at the new Targa 52. Not a hit with me, not with many of the salespeople, it seems. It's wider, and main criteria seems to have been 1) get a fast jet boat in the garage and 2) lower the superstructure so that the short people like er um well mebbe the chairman of Fairline can see over the windscreen and 3) gerally frig about a bit so that it's New, not old.
Unfortunately, its a miss. I hope they haven't spent a fortune on development. It steps a little forward in terms of engine access (no need for big central cockpit hatch, as access is down the rear single sunpad. But backwards in lots of others from the T48. The main beneficiary of the exxtra length and beam has been the mid cabins, invariably occupied by the kids and non-paying guests. Meanwhile the owners cabin gets (as far as I can see) a smaller bed (same length x breadth, but rounder) and cabin hardly at all bigger as it can be rammed further up the (wider) bows. The helm is awful - the sit/stand chairs have gone, for example.
The companionway stairs look as though I made them out of plywood - they should be teak. The daft saloon has a smaller main sofa that the t48 (against the starboard side) and a tiny fixed central sofa which will be ideal for nobody except 2 very smallest-arsed junior guests who don't mind being a foot from the table. The saloon isn't even all on one level- there's a small step to catch the lightly-slaughtered fridge-raider.
The cockpit looks good tho, and will have lower noise level (i bet) than the t48. From the rear, though, the boat is quite ugly - the t48 used to stop gawpers in their tracks and they'd say how lovely (even just being able to see the *stern* mind), whereas the t52 has higgedly-piggledly curves and "trendy" but pointless Audi/Ford Focus corners all over. It's also lost the symmetry.
I like the cockpit area, however, although again not as good imho as the t48. Getting to the rear of the boat not as secure as the t48, and the radar arch a mess - not high enough so it s/steel radar arch on top of the plastic one! Neat eh? Cockpit lighting still not sorted: the rear ward arch in the t48 had three lights, this has two, and two a tiny bit further forward on the sides, but it'll be dark in there. Overall, I'm glad that I didn't wait for it, and the forthcoming t60 will also be rubbish unless they get me round, ahem - and no I'm may not be getting above myself - the saloon table has an inlaid chessboard! Now where did they get that idea? ...However they've still managed to eff it up - it's too small for the standard pieces.
